Smoking days are over at the Peoria Civic Center

Friday

Dec 28, 2007 at 12:01 AMDec 28, 2007 at 4:32 AM

A look at how the Peoria Civic Center will operate under the Smoke Free Illinois Act. The Civic Center has been a smoke free facility for more than a year. Smoking is allowed outside, and staff is prepared to have its existing smoking policy comply with the state law that goes into effect Tuesday.

John Sharp

Not so long ago, it almost seemed that a ritualistic part of attending a rock concert at the Peoria Civic Center or any other major entertainment and sports venue was to come home smelling like one big giant cigarette.

Whether you smoked or not, the people inside the venue were lighting up. Sometimes the performers on stage encouraged it, no matter whether they smoked or what they smoked.

With the Smoke Free Illinois Act nearly here, those days seem to be long over.

"There was a time you could smoke at the Carver Arena and almost anywhere in the building," said Marc Burnett, Civic Center marketing director. "Those days are gone for the betterment of all."

The Civic Center has been a smoke free facility for more than a year. Smoking is allowed outside, and staff is prepared to have its existing smoking policy comply with the state law that goes into effect Tuesday.

Burnett said there will be areas outside the building where people can smoke, measured to comply with the new law’s banning of smoking within 15 feet of public entrances and exits and windows.

Smokers will be able to exit the Civic Center to have a cigarette but will need a ticket to re-enter the event they are attending. There will be designated smoking areas outside, including one near the Sonar Tide sculpture.

"The only thing we are doing now is making sure we are 15 feet away from the doors and (have) plenty of ash trays," Burnett said.

Jim Wetherington, assistant general manager at the Civic Center, said he is unsure how enforcement will be handled. The facility, same as many area businesses and governmental entities, is awaiting clarification of rules pertaining to the state law, to be decided by lawmakers in early January.

"For us, we have 900 doors and a lot of them are interior," he said. "What constitutes an entrance? We can’t get a clarification on that."

Wetherington said common sense will come into play if someone is caught smoking, especially during a rock concert when there are thousands of spectators and the building’s lights are shut off.

"It’s tough in the dark to tell of everything going on," he said.

He also said it’s unclear how the Civic Center will address particular situations, such as a performer who is smoking on stage inside Carver Arena or the Civic Center Theater.

In August, members of the Rolling Stones lit up while on stage in England, despite a similar law banning smoking inside enclosed public buildings. Concert organizers were warned about the smoking, which was a violation of the law.

"We’d try to deal with it before they got here," Wetherington said. "I’m sure there is a way to accommodate someone’s wishes."

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